EP1733974A1

EP1733974A1 - Box particularly for transporting and displaying bottles and various products

Info

Publication number: EP1733974A1
Application number: EP06011742A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Fabrizio Arizzi
Original assignee: Alverman Srl; Dasty Italia SpA
Current assignee: Dasty Italia SpA
Priority date: 2005-06-13
Filing date: 2006-06-07
Publication date: 2006-12-20
Also published as: ITMI20051096A1

Abstract

A box with a cutout on the display side and a die-cut band. The die-cut can be straight or oblique and is arranged on the upper part of the display side, so as to retain the two sides of the box; after filling, a lid is glued to the band and to the opposite side, so as to facilitate lifting the lid; gluing on the long sides would in fact force the operator to unglue the sides before lifting the lid, as occurs for traditional tray boxes, and at the same time detach the underlying band, which by having a very small number of bonding points does not produce an unsightly appearance.

Description

The present invention relates to a box particularly for transporting and displaying bottles and various products.
Cardboard boxes are normally used to transport, store and optionally display bottles.
Conventional boxes, provided with top and bottom flaps, arrive from the box manufacturer in an already partially-formed condition and are subsequently formed during production by a specific box forming machine, which opens them and closes their bottom.
Subsequently, once filled, the top of the box is closed by a traditional sealing machine which uses adhesive tape or glue.
Such conventional boxes do not satisfy all end users, particularly so-called discount shops, because they do not constitute a convenient, quick but especially low-cost product display.
Various types of boxes have been developed in order to satisfy this category of users as well.
Other conventional boxes are closed but have a side cut for subsequent opening by tearing, still other boxes are open, without top flaps or reduced ones with a lateral cutout, and tray boxes with a glued lid are in fact known.
The closed box does not fully meet the requirements of the customer, although it is very stable in transport and does not allow easy theft of the product contained therein during shipping and storing.
The problem of the closed box is that once the pre-cut portion of the cardboard has been torn, with significant difficulty, the box thus opened is very unsightly, because the pre-cut necessarily has to be discontinuous in order to remain intact during transport and the connecting points, once torn, remain rough.
The open type box is certainly the easiest to manufacture, because it entails no plant changes and is handled like a classic box.
However, the lateral pre-cut is avoided, because the box without a lid is highly unstable and any pre-cut would weaken it further. Sometimes die-cutting is performed on the side in order to make the product contained therein more visible.
The open box allows easy theft of the product during the various logistical transitions, i.e. during shipping and storing.
The tray box with glued lid is ideal for display: once the lid has been removed, the product in fact has a perfect appearance. However, it is not very stable during transport and in particular it entails an exclusive apparatus for forming it.
Therefore, if one wishes to manufacture on the same line a conventional box and a tray it is necessary to have a dual forming machine, consequently complicating the plant, increasing the space required for the insertion of a dual machine, and a doubled economic investment.
The tray box poses some difficulties for the operator when it has to be disposed, since by having a monolithic bottom it cannot be folded easily.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a box, particularly for transporting and displaying bottles and various products, which overcomes the drawbacks of the cited background art.
An object of the invention is to provide a box which can be processed with the same forming machines as a traditional box without having to provide the box forming plants with specific forming apparatus for trays, thus maintaining high flexibility on the plants.
A further object of the invention is to provide a box which allows easy opening and subsequent disassembly without particular tools, i.e., without using a cutter, for example.
A further object is to provide a box which allows to minimize any roughness on the flaps of the box and to minimize the ease of theft of the product during the various logistical transitions.
This aim and these and other objects, which will become better apparent hereinafter, are achieved by a box, particularly for transporting and displaying bottles and various products, comprising a base body constituted by at least one bottom, a rear wall, a front wall and side walls, characterized in that it comprises a cutout and a band on the front wall and a lid provided with at least one front flap, which can be fastened to the band, and with a rear flap, which can be fastened to the rear wall, said base body comprising die-cuts that facilitate the removal of the band, together with the lid, by tearing.
Further characteristics and advantages will become better apparent from the description of preferred but not exclusive embodiments of the invention, illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is an exploded perspective view of the box according to the invention;
Figure 2 is a partially cutout perspective view of a corner detail of the box according to the invention;
Figure 3 is a perspective view of the box, shown without the lid and with an oblique fine die-cut;
Figure 4 is a perspective view of the box, shown without the lid and with a straight fine die-cut;
Figure 5 is a perspective view of the box, shown without the lid and with an oblique spaced die-cut;
Figure 6 is a perspective view of the box, shown without the lid and with a straight spaced die-cut;
Figure 7 is a perspective view of the box according to the invention, shown in the condition for use during transport;
Figure 8 is a view, similar to Figure 7, of the step of removing the lid;
Figure 9 is a perspective view of a plurality of boxes arranged side-by-side during use as displays.

With reference to the cited figures, a box according to the invention, generally designated by the reference numeral 1, has a base body 2, which is constituted by two side walls 3 joined to a rear wall 4, to a bottom 5, and to a front wall 6, which is provided with a cutout 7 which defines an upper band 8.
The box has, at the band 8, two lateral die-cuts designated by the reference numeral 9 respectively, so as to allow to tear the band 8 from the front wall 6.
The die-cuts are preferably oblique, substantially affecting the front upper part of the side walls 3, at the band 8, or straight, being arranged at the edge that separates the band from each side wall.
Figures 3 and 5 illustrate boxes provided with oblique die-cuts, designated by the reference numerals 9 and 19 respectively, with a different spacing between the die-cut segments.
The box 1, according to the invention, also has a lid 10, which has at least one front flap 11 and one rear flap 12 adapted to be respectively fastened to the band 8 of the front wall 6 and to the rear wall 4 of the base body 2.
The lid 10 is fastened to the base body 2 preferably by means of glue spots 13.
The operation of the box according to the invention is as follows.
The box is provided initially in a manner which is similar to a traditional box, but is open with the cutout 7 on the display side and is provided with the die-cut band 8.
The die-cut, which can be straight or oblique or of any other suitable shape, is arranged on the upper part of the display side, so as to retain the two sides 3 of the box.
After filling the box with the product, for example bottles 14, the lid 10 is glued to the band 8 and to the rear wall 4. The box 1 is thus ready for transport and storage.
When the product is to be displayed, it is sufficient to lift the lid at the front, simultaneously removing the band 8, which remains rigidly coupled to the front flap 11 of the lid, thus leaving the base body 2 open at the front and at the top, as shown in Figures 8 and 9.
In practice it has been found that the invention achieves the intended aim and objects, a box having been provided which is open with a cutout on the display side and a die-cut band arranged on the upper part of the display side so as to retain the two sides of the box, so that after filling it is possible to glue a lid onto the band and onto the opposite side, in order to facilitate the lifting of the lid.
An important advantage of the present invention with respect to the prior art is that, while in conventional boxes, gluing on the long sides would force the operator to unglue the sides before lifting the lid, in the present invention the underlying band can be easily removed, and by having an extremely small number of bonding points, it does not produce an unsightly appearance.
This application claims the priority of Italian Patent Application No. MI2005A001096, filed on 13 June 2005 , the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The box according to the invention is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, within the scope of the appended claims. All the details may be replaced with technically equivalent elements.
The materials used, as well as the dimensions, may of course be any according to requirements and to the state of the art.

Claims

A box, particularly for transporting and displaying bottles and various products, comprising a base body constituted by at least one bottom, a rear wall, a front wall and side walls, characterized in that it comprises a cutout and a band on said front wall and a lid provided with at least one front flap, which can be fastened to said band, and with a rear flap, which can be fastened to said rear wall, said base body comprising die-cuts that facilitate the removal of said band, together with said lid, by tearing.
The box according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises, at said band, two oblique lateral die-cuts, that substantially affect the upper front part of said side walls at said band.
The box according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises, at said band, two straight die-cuts, that lie at the edge that separates said band from each side wall.
The box according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said die-cuts have a different spacing among the die-cut segments.
The box according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said lid is fastened to said base body by means of glue spots.